The ultimate purpose of pain is to develop alignment with soul, especially its quality of compassion or unconditional love toward ourselves and others. However, pain can take us into being more self-focused, more fully in our personality. The power to experience the pain and difficulties in life in fruitful ways lies in relating those experiences to our life purpose. If we do not know our purpose then how can we possibly connect with our true power. When I am immersed in serving, aligned with my purpose, responding to others' needs I do not feel the pain in my body because I am not identified with my personality. I am soul centered.

For the emotionally oriented person the secrets are in the mind.For the mentally oriented person the secrets are in the heart.For the purely physically oriented person the secrets are in nature.And for everyone the secrets are in relationships.

Reflection

Once you know if you’re mentally or emotionally polarized you can work toward knowing how that emotional or mental part blocks or triggers you. There are emotional traps and mental traps. Different challenges have different purposes. Some will challenge you to be more mental, to overcome some emotional trap by being rational and working through it. Sometimes others will challenge you to be more connected in your heart center because you’re too much in your head. Some will challenge you to be more feminine; others to be more masculine. Some will challenge you to be more balanced; others to be more focused. What is your orientation and how can discovering that secret help you to allow more soul in your life?

Persistent unwanted thoughts are the souls way to show you what opportunities there are for healing, right now.

Reflection

We all have negative thoughts that come up over and over again at times. It is your soul highlighting this particular negativity that is blocking your growth at this time because it wants to transform it. Ask yourself what do you need to let go of in order to heal this particular situation? What are you holding onto that is keeping you in this negative loop? What positive aspect do you need to embrace and acknowledge about yourself? We often know the answers once we empower our personalities to be in a helping mode instead of a defending mode.

From a soul perspective perfection does not exist, but wholeness does. Wholeness is a synthesis of opposites, positive and negative, which exists in all manifestation.

Reflection

We often blame ourselves or feel guilty when we manifest something that we perceive as negative. We usually expect more of ourselves than is reasonable. And usually what we expect is some degree of perfection. When we do not accept our mistakes and messes we do not then tolerate the mistakes and messes of others. So we need to be much more tolerant and light hearted toward ourselves. That means to be more compassionate toward our human frailty. Accepting the weaknesses we have will balance and augment the strengths we have. Denying the weaknesses also denies the strengths.Guilt is only useful to point out that you might not have been most appropriate.The point of it then is simply to acknowledge that, learn from it and move on. It helps you take responsibility for your words, actions and thoughts. Beyond that it is needless and harmful.An essential aspect of moving on is to forgive yourself for being inappropriate which means that you acknowledge what you did, accept it as what it is, and affirm the beauty, truth and goodness within yourself so that your heart embraces all of you. Doing this repeatedly will enable you to do the same with others thereby having wonderfully healthy, authentic and loving relationships.

What we don’t like and what we reject is usually a gift that we have not learned to value because we have not understood our need for it.

Reflection

We need to make friends with what we reject, what we see as "bad" in ourselves and in other people. We must not only tolerate what we find painful, but actually approach it more deeply, more whole heartedly rather than trying to escape from it. The only way to do this successfully is with an open heart, letting it soften you. This way you are not attacking it or seeking to eradicate it, but instead embracing it. For only then will it serve the purpose for which it exists and can reveal to you the gift hidden within it.Identify something you reject in yourself or in another and take it into your heart. Let it speak to you and reveal its teaching, blessing or energy.

What are you procrastinating?"The greatest amount of wasted time is the time not getting started."-- Dawson TrotmanProcrastination seriously drains our energy and our morale. What remains undone nags at us.What are you avoiding? Make a list of items and then review each one. Does it really need to be done? After you've reviewed your list, prioritize it and start one task today.Please do not procrastinate taking one minute to write down your answer to this question. Capture it on paper and this will help build awareness, commitment and discipline."How soon not now, becomes never."-- Martin Luther"Talk does not cook rice."-- Chinese proverb"Do you know what happens when you give a procrastinator a good idea? Nothing!"-- Donald Gardner

Soul perceives what is. The labels of right and wrong, however, are never part of soul perception and never part of heart knowing.

Reflection

The labels of right and wrong that we attach to things arise only from a conditioned and biased personality view of reality. The personality always wants to be right. And whatever it accepts, it calls right. Whatever it rejects, it calls wrong.When the personality ego eventually learns that the rejected and repressed aspects are also right, it will be responding more to the soul than to its conditioning. One of the results of this is greater love and acceptance toward self and others. Obviously the ego needs to be educated by experiences of heart knowing. And we need to be conscious when we are viewing and experiencing from the ego or from the heart. When responding from the ego we are typically responding from conditioned mind supported by emotional attachments.Examine some of the situations that you have labelled wrong and see if you can detect your conditioning, bias, and attachments behind it. Then view the same situations from a soul or heart perspective and notice the difference.

The universal Law of Karma - also called the Law of Cause and Effect - is needed in order that we might do what is necessary to open to soul and to express unconditional love. Whenever we act selfishly or ignorantly the Law of Karma is automatically activated within our life.

Reflection

It is a universal truth that the Law of Karma demonstrates the existence of a duality that needs to be harmonized and transcended. In order to do that the Law of Love needs to be activated. The implication then is that any relationship where there is anger, resentment, conflict, obligation or unfulfilled desire there needs to be resolution. That resolution can only be reached when we are ready and able to accept, forgive, let go and love. This is responding to the Law of Love, and thereby balancing karma.Karma involves specific learning that will enable us to love in a particular situation. Where in your life do you not love and need to learn to do so? Karma will show you by the presence of negativity, disharmony or dissatisfaction.

Personality based sacrifice is giving up something. Soul based sacrifice is giving yourself.

Reflection

Sacrifice literally means to make whole and to make holy or sacred. Therefore in its true sense sacrifice is always a soul based loving, empowering attitude and behaviour, one that needs to be present and offered every day of our lives.

Examine a situation or a relationship in which you are involved in light of your approach to it. Do you sacrifice or do you let your ego dominate?

Do you love yourself?"At the heart of personality is the need to feel a sense of being lovable without having to qualify for that acceptance."-- Dr. Paul TournierHow do you see yourself as unlovable?Take a few minutes to write down why you perceive yourself to be unlovable. Look at the list and see if you can identify where those characterizations originated. Can you pinpoint old messages from parents, teachers, and friends that led you to negative conclusions about yourself? Are those messages valid today?The beliefs we adopt as children usually don't hold when we view them objectively as adults. Can you let them go? Can you begin to see yourself as a unique expression of life, a genuine gift to the world?"You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection."-- Buddha"Limitless like the ocean are your excellent qualities."-- Dalai Lama

Soul is essentially unconditional love, an expression of the universal law of Oneness or Unity. It can be seen to express one of the three aspects of Unity, which are: Beauty, Truth and Goodness.

Reflection

The Universal Law of Unity implies universal law and order which is absolutely supreme. We can create disturbances to this order, but the law and order will ultimately prevail. We should understand that this Law and Order is built into every physical particle of matter as well as in every emotional and mental substance. It is omnipresent - which means it is the very life of Spirit in its love aspect. The Law is essentially the Law of Love. The Order is the Beauty of that Love. From this perspective, that which drives us forward toward right relationship is Love and Beauty which are absolutely everywhere without exception, including within every fibre of our being.

Take time each day to connect with both the love and beauty within yourself and in your relationships.

Life as a mirror"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."-- C.G. JungWe get clues about our unconscious programming if we watch our reactions, responses, feelings and thoughts about other people and events. Ask yourself: How do I judge or stereotype people? What pushes my buttons? What makes me angry or fearful or sad?The outer incidents that trigger these reactions in me simply MIRROR my own nature. If I didn't have beliefs around the issues that upset me, where would my reactions come from? If I didn't have some internal reference, I wouldn't react at all.When outer events spark a reaction, we need to look inside to explore what’s going on."We discover in ourselves what others hide from us and we recognize in others what we hide from ourselves."-- Vauvenargues

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Refuse to be a victim"We focus on the negatives, losing ourselves in the ‘problem.’ We point to our unhappy circumstances to rationalize our negative feelings. This is the easy way out. It takes, after all, very little effort to feel victimized."-- Elizabeth Kubler-RossNothing and no one can make us a victim. We do it to ourselves when we allow external circumstances to hold power over us.Although we have no control over what happens to us, we ALWAYS have a choice in how we respond. We hold our power when we accept complete responsibility for our thoughts, feelings and actions."A man may fall many times but he won't be a failure until he says someone pushed him."-- Elmer G. Letterman"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed."-- Steven BikoBecome aware of your subconscious limitations, your character strengths, weaknesses and potentials, your life challenges, gifts, talents, and your deepest desires and aspirations. Take the

Your purpose is the expression of soul qualities which bring joy and even transcendence. When you are doing something that you think you should be doing as part of your life's purpose and you do not feel joy in it, or it does not take you out of your personality, then you have to question if this is what you ought to be doing. Reflect on something you are doing in your life and ask yourself if it really is aligned with what is most appropriate for you?

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Conscious communication“If we want to be compassionate we must be conscious of the words we use. We must both speak and listen from the heart.”-- Marshall B. RosenbergConscious communication requires us to be truly present to what is occurring. When we are unconscious, we both speak to and react to others out of habit. And in the face of what we perceive as someone’s judgment and criticism, we automatically (and unconsciously) defend, withdraw or attack.To communicate consciously requires attention to two areas:I need to speak from awareness of what I am perceiving, feeling and needing, andThrough watching and listening, I need to be aware of those same needs in others.“When we focus on clarifying what is being observed, felt, and needed rather than on diagnosing and judging, we discover the depth of our own compassion.”-- Marshall B. RosenbergExplore your typical defence mechanisms in our Know Yourself workbook.Know Yourself – An adventure in self discovery! Become aware of your subconscious limitations, your character strengths, weaknesses and potentials, your life challenges, gifts, talents, and your deepest desires and aspirations. Take the Know Yourself online workbook now. Join Higher Awareness.

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